Aruba Help

can the newlyweds who have been to aruba help me out?

i know there are great restaurants, can you recommend some, let me know the type of food, and if we need to make reservations?

i know we want to go to the lighthouse restaurant for sunset and i think FH will like texas de brazil....any other suggestions? we are going in 1 week!

we went to aruba & the restaurants were great. i don't think we had one bad meal. lol. The most popular ones that really stick out in my mind are:

1) El Gaucho - Brazilian Steakhouse. we made reservations about a month in advance. i heard so many good reviews from people. we didn't want to miss eating here. DH is a big steak person & he luved it.

2) Madame Janette: unfortunately we didn't get to eat here because we didn't have reservation. i heard so many good things about this place. i think its Meditterean.

3)Café Japengo. is located at the Hyatt Hotel. its a Vietnamese/Asian restaurant. Very good. i think we ate there 2x since we stayed at the Hyatt. we didn't need reservations

4) Flying Fishbone: seafood. reservations are recommended. very good

are you trying the jeep tour? we did a 1/2 day tour that you took to the natural pool. 1/2 day is more than enough. it was alot of fun

Enjoy!!

I second the Flying Fishbone, the lighthouse resturant and El Gaucho.

Also, I must recommend staying at the RIU Palace. LOVED LOVED LOVED it. Buffet breakfast and lunch, so convienent and delicious and for the resturants, we ate at the gormet place. It's all inclusive.

A lot of tours had food served on it such as Kuku Knukuu which is a bar hopping tour of the whole island. You also get a champainge toast at the bunch during sunset. Soooo much fun!!

I met someone who went to flying fishbone & said it was great. Taxxi is $30- each way to get there though.
We mostly ate at the all inclusive of occidental. It also rained alot of the time I was there & heard it rained this week also...I hope you have better weather.

Where are you staying? Also Hubby lost his ring in Aruba so tell yours to be careful & not wear it in the ocean.

Papiamento is charming - it's in Noord...we loved it! Address: Washington 61, Noord; Phone: 297/586-4544 - you definitely want to make reservations.
'Set in the authentic 19th-century country home of the owners. The carefully chosen menu of international and Caribbean favorites includes entrees of beef, lamb and fresh seafood.'

Ooooh I love talking about Aruba - it was one of the greatest places we have gone to!

The Lighthouse is absolutely phenomenal! Yes, I am slightly biased b/c that is where DH proposed but it's still amazing Italian food! I also loved The Flying Fishbone but DH didn't as much, just b/c of the whole feet in the sand thing. They even have those little faucets like at the beaches here so you can wash off your feet before you put your shoes back on. Madame Janette is delish but the food selection is not the most elaborate. Its like German food I think... I know a lot of the stuff can be prepared as 'shnitzel.' Really yummy though, and the atmosphere there is really sweet and romantic. El Gaucho is another one! THE BEST STEAK DH and I have ever eaten!!! Those are our 4 fave restaurants. We had the concierge at our hotel make reservations for every restaurant we dined at. I don't think it's required everywhere but we figured we'd rather be safe than sorry. I also recommend you do an ATV tour at some point, they are super fun! Any other questions, feel free to ask! We love Aruba!

Here is a great website for Aruba restaurants

Restaurants -- there are so many and we truly enjoyed every meal we ate. Here are the ones we ate at.

Flying Fishbone -- (it is about a 25-35 minute cab ride) but worth it. You eat out on the beach it is beautiful.

El Gacho - Argentina Steak House (our second favorite place)

Papimento - OUR FAVORITE order something on the stone if you go here

Madame Jeanettes - also part of our top three and highest rated on the island

Sunset Grille in the Radisson was really good as well

Aqua Grill - the food was really good but it reminded me of a place you could eat at at home -- if you are only there for a limited number of nights then I would put this at the bottom.

If you like Sushi we heard Blossoms in the Westin is Really good. We were going to go there but were really tired that night and our hotel had good sushi place so we just ate there -- it is called Japengo.

One night we ate pizza at place called Casa Tua -- it was good and relaxing, casual and cheap.

I also heard the screaming Eagle is really good and Texas De Brazil. The lighthouse I heard is good for drinks and to watch the sunset -- heard the food is only ok -- we never made it there so I can only go on what a few people told us.

We were there for 10 nights and seriously ate like kings. Fish, Steak, Italian it was all good. We had breakfast included but it wasn't necessary. Depending on how much you eat in the morning there are a bunch of Dunkin Donuts walkable from the hotels, a Bagel store and I think almost all of the hotels have little cafes to that you can grab coffee and a muffin or bagel.

HTH if you need more info let me know.

ETA: we made reservations but changed them all around. We didn't have any problems. Flying Fishbone if you go you want to get an early reservation (6ish) so you can watch the sunset -- that is all part of it. When you arrive you can go to your hotel's concierge and they can help you make the reservations.

There is a seafood reestaurant all the way down by the Marriot (walking distance to the high-rises). It's on the beach and looked great.
I can't remember the name of it but a lot of people were raving about it.

There is also a sports bar down there---I think it's called Champions. We went there for lunch one day (obviously on a sunday so DH could watch football for a little while).

Smokey Joe's has great ribs.

If u r going to travel around the island, it's probably cheaper to rent a car for a day or two instead of taking taxis.


If u want to go snorkeling, def try Jolly Pirates. It was super fun. There was a rope swing, free booze and lunch. 3 dive spots.

Have fun.